Tele-health for mental and behavioral health.
“the use of telecommunications & information technology to provide access to health assessment, intervention, consultation, supervision, education, & information across distance” — Nickelson
While “telemedicine” has been around for 50 years (we have been involved with it for almost 25 years), only recently did mass media video conferencing technology achieve the level of ease of use, low cost, and popularity required for broad use.
The 2019 global coronavirus pandemic pushed everyone to utilize the new technologies for all sorts of practical applications, including routine health contacts. Thus tele-health took off, replacing the stagnant tele-medicine.
2021 Update : During these times of COVID, if you need help with mental or behavioral health (anxiety, depression, inability to function as you desire, or substance use issues like alcohol or non-prescribed drugs) please reach out to local behavioral health providers near you. You may find it helpful to call a suicide hotline, or if you have an emergency, your local 9-1-1 operator.
Tele-Health has moved teleconferencing-based health communications into the popular arena, instead of the medical arena.
Telehealth for mental and behavioral health is now commonly known as “tele-mental health“, and therefore we chose this name for our information service supporting tele-mental health initiatives.
Contact us by emailing us at info at telemental.org